Product Catalog Update [cover images]

Did anyone else notice that WotC has updated the 4e product catalog page to include new cover images for some of newly announced D&D releases?

Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Product Catalog

So far, there are cover images for these items: Dungeons & Dragons Fantasy Roleplaying Game [Red Box]; Rules Compendium; D&D Gamma World Roleplaying Game; Dungeon Tiles Master Set: The City; Dungeon Master's Kit; Player Essentials: Heroes of the Fallen Lands; Dungeons of Dragonfire Mountain; D&D Gamma World Expansion Kit: Famine in Far-go; and Player Essentials: Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms.

Gamma World

Rules Compendium



Dungeons of Dragonfire Mountain



Dungeon Master's Kit

Player Essentials

I like them all!

These are better covers than anything we've seen for 4e to date. Much better than the awkward poses.

In fact, I don't think there will be many that will have a problem with any of these.

Yeah, but it sucks in a way that they're so much cooler than the core 4e stuff. Remember all the flak about that damn dragonborn on the PHB?

The new covers are attractive - I think they'll definitely stand apart from the current 4e covers, while still maintaining a lot of stylistic links.

The recent thread on the marketing of D&D (to adults or to children) made me wonder something though - how visible are these covers to potential new buyers?

While gaming stores seem to have new releases displayed prominently, any major book store I've been in has their D&D books kicked away in a corner, with only the spines showing.

I'm only in my 20s, so I don't remember the 80's heyday of D&D being in the mainstream, but I do remember back in the mid 90s seeing TSR display stands even in the small book shop in the little town I grew up in. Something like this:



I remember (and I was probably only 8 or 9) being completely entranced with the covers of the books - although my dad didn't end up buying me any of them, they were obviously eye-grabbing.

I wouldn't be surprised if the marketing push for the new Essentials line includes putting up display stands in retailers. I've seen board games like Settler's and Carcassonne displayed prominently in Chapters and Indigo book stores, and I'm sure WotC has some clout with the booksellers from their fiction line.

I know firsthand a few people (with extended groups of friends) who had been interested in playing D&D when they were younger but couldn't figure out how to get started.

A well-placed display with some sort of marketing spiel on it pushing the acquisition order of Red Box > Essentials Line > Hardcovers would definitely give an easy way into the hobby, and I think it would be a step up on what the previous basic sets accomplished.

Holy Crap, those are some awesome covers. And the layout and desing is superb. I don´t NEED that DM essential box, but with that cover, it´s hard to say no.

Knightfall said:

Player Essentials

Click to expand...

There appear to be actual adventures happening on those covers!